This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World

U.S. military-style vehicles will take part in autonomous-vehicle testing in September and October of this year, after the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) signed an agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation to test self-driving technology. The testing, which will see the vehicles cross over the Blue Water Bridge in Michigan, will include the “evaluation of automated braking and throttle control plus limited automated steering control.” “Platooning” a line of vehicles will also be a part of the testing, where the lead vehicle will be manually controlled, and the following vehicles will take directions from the leader. (Detroit Free Press)

Ocado, an online supermarket that makes about 170,000 delivers a week, will develop a self-driving van that will be used to deliver groceries to its customers. Ocado is expected to begin using driverless vehicles later this year, as a part of a trial. Ocado has reportedly been in talks with an Oxford-based technology firm called Oxbotica, which has been developing an autonomous ‘cargo pod’ to make ‘last mile’ deliveries in cities. (Metro)

Latvia will open a new self-driving car test track in Riga, and will also welcome public road testing to the city, thanks to a public-private partnership in the country. The initiative is backed by the government, and in an effort to “develop Latvia as fertile ground for self-driving research and testing,” the initiative is working with startups, the telecoms industry and academia. Latvia is following in the footsteps of Singapore on how to test this technology, as Singapore has reached an advanced stage of autonomous vehicle testing on both public roads and closed tracks. (Tech.eu)

Autonomous vehicles have a bright future in Detroit according to Mighty AI, so the artificial intelligence company will open an office in the city, with plans to share space with Techstars Mobility at Ford Field. The Seattle-based AI company “provides a training data platform for companies building computer vision models to teach self-driving vehicles,” and its clients include startups, suppliers and tier one automotive OEMs. (Crain’s Detroit Business)

DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) aviation managers and aviation safety officers received a training seminar on UAS, courtesy of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The training, which took place at INL’s Energy Systems Laboratory, and on a 100-by-1,000-foot runway at the DOE’s Idaho site, covered academic studies, and the safe and responsible operation of both small and large UAS. (Unmanned Aerial)

Delphi Automotive PLC and Transdev are partnering to develop a “global, fully automated, mobility-on-demand (AMoD) transport system.” The system will utilize Delphi's automated driving platform, called the Centralized Sensing, Localization and Planning (CSLP) platform (which is being developed in partnership with Mobileye), and the Transdev Universal Routing Engine (URE). The two companies will start collaborating on pilot programs in Paris-Saclay and Rouen (Normandy) France, “as the first EU driverless, on-demand mobility service on an open road.” (Delphi)

The city of Edmonton, Canada is pushing forward with plans to partner with the University of Alberta for the testing of driverless vehicles, after a committee of city council approved a plan that includes the hiring of three new staff members, and the purchasing of a test vehicle, using $325,000 that will go to the U of A project. The city council as a whole will consider the plan in the fall when it debates a new budget. (CBC News)